Gays, politics, dogs and poets

BY NOREEN FAGAN – Stuff that Harper did has nothing on the stuff that Robert Mugabe’s doing. For the last decade or so the embattled Zimbabwean dictator has been an anti-gay crusader, referring to all gays and lesbians as worse than pigs and dogs.

Mugabe has gone so far as to say, “Where shall we end if man takes man? We will have a situation when man sleeps with dogs.”

On Saturday, Mugabe went on another tirade against the western world and its tolerance of gays. Mugabe spoke at the funeral of Menard Muzariri, deputy director general of the state’s Central Intelligence Organization.

According to news reports he told the mourners, “We don’t worry ourselves about the goings-on in Europe. About the unnatural things happening there, where they turn man-to-man and woman-to-woman. We say, well, it’s their country. If they want to call their country British Gaydom, it’s up to them. That’s not our culture. We condemn that filth.”

On the brighter side of politics and anti-gay sentiments, Rick Santorum, a United States presidential candidate and former senator, will begin using the campaign slogan “Fighting to make America America again.” The line is taken from a poem written by gay poet Langston Hughes.

Santorum has spent most of his political career fighting gay rights advancements, and like Mugabe, he has compared same-sex couples with people who have sex with dogs.

Hopefully Hughes is laughing in his grave and Santorum will continue with his gay slogan.

Back to Canadian elections: the countdown continues, and as politicians keep on campaigning and scaring would-be voters, videos are popping up everywhere encouraging people to vote.